Smith-Wills Stadium

The exterior of Smith-Wills Stadium, Jul-2015.

The seating bowl, as seen from beyond the outfield.

The woods are only broken up by light towers and the scoreboard (and the Marlboro Man – remember him?) in a photo from Aug-1993.

Chronological Tour: Stop 44

• Location: Cool Papa Bell Drive off Lakeland Drive, Jackson, Miss. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1975
• Home team: Jackson Mets (1975-90), Generals (1991-99), Texas League; Jackson DiamondKats (2000), Senators (2001-05), Texas-Louisiana / Central League; Belhaven Blazers, Southern States Athletic Conference (NAIA)
• Capacity: 5,200

Rating: 2 baseballs

The stadium honors two former Jackson athletes who died in motor vehicle crashes during the 1960s: Johnny Smith (1947-66), a Provine High School graduate, and Doug Wills (1944-67), out of Murrah High.

The most notable thing about Smith-Wills Stadium for me was nothing about its architecture, location, or amenities. The night I got to the park in 1993, former big league hurler Catfish Hunter made a promotional appearance at the yard. That helped enhance the Monday-evening crowd.

Several colleges have used the site as their home field for both baseball and football, after the facility received artificial turf following the departure of the Senators. In addition, state high school playoff games are often contested here. The stadium is across the parking lot from the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and next to a city park. The entire tract was redeveloped from a landfill in the early 1970s.